Democrats’ utter lack of fiscal responsibility with our tax dollars — which makes the hypocritical excesses of Republicans in the Bush-era Congress look downright measly — has become a byword, the stuff of legend. So I guess it’s not a huge surprise to see a Colorado Democratic official with a heavily irresponsible fiscal track record mismanaging the party’s own funds, too.

CBS4 Denver has the video scoop on recently resigned state Democratic Party treasurer Elmer “Butch” Hicks — a man with a laundry list history of bounced checks, garnished wages, bankruptcy and bad debt — and the Adams County sheriff’s investigation into missing party funds.

Adams County Democrat Chairman Marty Wisniewski said he “didn’t know” about Hicks’ long-checkered financial past. Obviously, good financial management was not a major prerequisite for the job. And Colorado Democratic Party chair Pat Waak runs such a tight ship that her off-camera response to the CBS4 reporter was a very telling six words: “This is all new to me.” If it were my local party office and my money, I’d be outraged.

But maybe the episode explains why Colorado Lefties are so fixated on shutting down the high-interest rate payday loan operations — even if it leads to the unintended consequences of compelling people to resort to black-market deals with real loan sharks. Not that we can be sure Hicks didn’t use party funds to pay off one of those, either.